TCM INFORMATION

What is Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM)?

Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) is a medical system of healthcare diagnosis and approaches that originated in China some 5,000 years ago. A practitioner, through the observation of a patient's bodily responses, uses basic principles in TCM such as herbal formulas or acupuncture to balance the patient's physical and physiological condition.

Traditional Chinese Medicine versus Western Medicine

The conventional Western Medicine adopts a more symptomatic approach, whereas TCM regards the human body and nature as an inseparable whole.

Western Medicine combats illness with counter medicines to create an oppositional effect. For example, anti-pyretics are used to lower the body temperature during fever.

The TCM holistic approach considers a person's mind and body, diet and exercise, lifestyle and relationships, work and leisure, the climate and environment at large. This "whole" is composed of many variables, which have an intimate connection that exert influences on each other.

Traditional Chinese Medicine Approach to Illness

TCM views disease as a result of disharmony in the body. The state of harmony in the body refers to the balance between the Yin and Yang, vital energy (Qi) and blood as well as between the functions of the different organs and between the environment and our body.

One of the main approaches in TCM to maintain health is to strengthen the body resistance such that we are readily able to overcome and dismiss any disease causative factors. Causes of diseases include: